china's health care reform caused a lot of controversies and, in a recent report released by a state advisory body, the market-oriented reform was accused of "a failure" and was blamed for creating one of the most unfair health care systems in the world.
political factors aside, the single most significant factor that makes the government re-think the current health care reform is public opinions that strongly oppose a market-oriented approach.
Top government advisers, scholars and the state-controlled media are openly criticizing the ruling Communist Party for failing to avert a growing crisis in public health care. These critics allege that paying patients are treated as cash cows while the poor are denied access to proper medical care.
i must also point out that in all chinese media, stories of the poor mistreated by money-hungry doctors are always a hot hot topic that attracts many eyeballs and arouses a lot of echoes among the readers. this carries big weight in the policy making because the government hopes to build a "harmonious society".
as i understand, the purpose of marketization is to stimulate the amount of service supply, and anyone who followed the reform will admit that numbers of hospitals, especially private ones, are increasing quickly and their service ranges are expanding too.
the problems of the marketization, such as overcharge, unevenness, etc. are the same ones of any industry going privatized, and they will diminish over time as the industry has more money and players in and services become more competitive. even health care sector has its uniqueness, the therapy for the misplaced reform is to further advance the marketization but not to halt it.
the public, mostly don't have that knowledge and vision, are proposing to draw back to the safe and cozy position of government-take-care-of-all, and with the help of mass media, their voices are without doubt reach the ears of top policy-makers. in my view, the public opinons are an indispensable part of the policy-making process but they are just counter-productive in the health care reform.